Jobs for your vegetable garden

Early Spring

Harvest:

• Brussel sprouts, kale and cabbage as spring greens. Lift vegetables over wintering in the garden such as Jerusalem artichokes, carrots, parsnips, leeks.

Sow - Indoors:

• Lettuce, cabbage, cauliflower, celery to plant out later.

Sow - Outdoors:

• Broad beans, round seeded peas, radish and round seeded spinach either when conditions allow or under cloches.

Plant:

• Jerusalem artichoke and shallots, when soil conditions allow.

Cultivate:

• Seed potatoes by putting in shallow trays in a frost free place to develop short shoots.

• Apply general fertiliser to the plot and cultivate it into the surface when preparing a fine crumbly surface in readiness for seed sowing.

Protect:

• Young seedlings and pea and bean seed from mice attack

Mid Spring

Harvest:

• New green shoots from brussel sprouts as vegetables, turnip tops and spring cabbage as greens. Lift any remaining leeks and heel them in for use in the next few weeks. It is also advisable to lift any remaining root vegetables now. Store them in the recommended way if necessary.

Sow - Indoors:

• Celery (self blanching and trench varieties) and brussel sprouts for an early crop.

Sow - Outdoors:

• Broad beans, Brussel sprouts, carrot, lettuce, leeks, onion, parsley, parsnips, peas, radish, spinich, turnips.

Plant:

• Onion sets, broad beans and peas from earlier sowing.

Cultivate:

• Apply nitrogen fertiliser top dressing to spring cabbage and over wintered lettuce crops. Pull earth up over asparagus crowns so they are well covered, to provide blanched stems, Start routine hoeing to control the weeds as the soil surface dries.

Protect:

• as many of the outdoor sown crops as possible with cloches to give early crops better germination. Poly tunnels and fleece also prevent sparrows from eating lettuce and other emerging seedlings.

Late Spring

Harvest:

• Start cutting asparagus sprouting broccoli, kale, spring cabbages and pulling radish. Clear brussel sprouts and winter cabbage. Leave woody stems in the air to dry out before burning them.

Sow - Indoors:

• Towards the end of the period, aubergines, peppers, tomatoes, runner beans and sweet corn.

Sow - Outdoors:

• Beetroot, cabbage, carrots, cauliflower, onions (for pickling), salad onions, turnips.

Plant:

• Early potatoes, globe artichoke sets and cauliflower from the earlier indoor sowing.

Cultivate:

• Soil and dig trench for celery, Start to erect sticks or net for early peas.  Continue to hoe regularly.